A political ad from Spain’s main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister’s wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised country gears up for general elections next month.

Launched this week across the social media channels of the conservative People’s party (PP), the video used artificial intelligence to manipulate the likenesses of various people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party and appeared to show them admitting to acts such as soliciting prostitutes and taking kickbacks.

An AI-generated version of Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, for example, speaks about receiving a university post thanks to her husband’s job, while a deepfake of the former Socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero speaks about hiding jewellery in a safe. Both lines are nods to ongoing investigations in which Gómez and Zapatero have denied any wrongdoing.

A still from the People’s party AI-generated video featuring a deepfake of Begoña Gomez.…